Tuskeegee exhibit locates to Art Association
Also, Bridgeway Church hosts 'Night to Shine' event
This article is brought to you by the Kokomo Family YMCA. Don't let this opportunity bounce away! Beat the buzzer and enroll your child today in Little Dribblers. In this exciting introductory basketball program, your child will learn the fundamentals of the game, including how to pass, dribble, and shoot. This program takes place in a fun, safe, and non-competitive environment, where the focus is on playing basketball, making new friends, and most importantly, having fun! Register here: https://operations.daxko.com/Online/5014/ProgramsV2/Home.mvc
The national traveling exhibition “Tuskeegee Airmen: America’s Freedom Flyers,” is on display at the Kokomo Art Association’s Artworks Gallery for a special Black History Month presentation.
The exhibition, which debuted Memorial Day 2024 at the Grissom Air Museum, will be open for free exhibition tours to community groups, churches, and schools, starting January 19 in commemoration of MLK Day, and continuing through February 22.
Visitors to Artworks Gallery, 210 N. Main St., in Kokomo, will have the opportunity to learn about Kokomo’s local “Hometown Heroes” and view panels and artifacts dedicated to the 84-year legacy of the Tuskegee Airmen worldwide. A 2006 Congressional Medal awarded to Kokomo native LTC Bennett Hardy, the William Childs Collection, a model plane by Bill Hence, and photographs by John Slemp will be highlighted.
Educational curriculum and activity packets will be available to each classroom teacher, community, or church group that schedules a tour during January-February at Artworks Gallery. NOLAWORLD Curator Robin Williams serves as curator and designer for the exhibition, created in partnership with national historians Zellie Orr and Craig Huntly.
“We are very excited to be able to offer this exhibition to our local schools and community groups prior to its launch as a national touring exhibition,” emphasized Williams. “Young people will be inspired by the brave men and women who served their country against all odds. This is the perfect time to tell their story.”
This special community exhibition has been made possible by generous support from the Kokomo Art Association, the Community Foundation of Howard County, the Severns Family Fund, the Partners in Education Advised Fund, the Northview Christian Church Fund, Advanced Medical Imaging, Community First Bank of Indiana, Dignity Memorial, and several private donors.
After the special community presentation, the exhibition will travel to other locations around the country. Its next destination will be the Soldiers Memorial Military Museum in downtown St. Louis. Opening on Juneteenth 2025, the exhibition will be fortified with a “Hometown Heroes” section created in partnership with the Hugh J. White Chapter of Tuskegee Airmen Inc., celebrating more than 50 Tuskegee Airmen from St. Louis.
For the last 35 years NOLAWORLD has been dedicated to illuminating the often overlooked and unheard stories of cultural treasures through world-class public art, monuments, and exhibitions. During “Military Appreciation Month” last May, Williams worked with The Arts Federation and Howard County Memorial Corporation to bring nationally lauded muralist Malcom Byers to execute a large-scale mural dedicated to Kokomo’s “Hometown Heroes.”
Portraits of five Tuskegee Airmen originating from Howard County were unveiled on May 14, 2024, in downtown Kokomo at 217 N. Main St. Families of the Airmen were honored with a proclamation from the State of Indiana by District 30 State Representative Mike Karickhoff.
Artworks Gallery, located at 210 N. Main Street in Kokomo is open six days a week, Monday through Saturday from noon until 4 p.m. Additional tour times may be possible by special arrangement.
To schedule a tour, contact Curator/Coordinator Robin Williams at 317-213-5278 or email curator@nolaworld.org.
Bridgeway Church to host ‘Night to Shine’ event
Bridgeway Church announced that it will serve as a host of the 2025 Night to Shine, sponsored by the Tim Tebow Foundation. The unforgettable worldwide celebration event, centered on God’s love, honoring and valuing people with special needs will be held by host churches around the world simultaneously on Friday, February 7, 2025.
Bridgeway is excited to join hundreds of other churches around the globe in celebrating people with disabilities as God’s image bearers.
Night to Shine is hosted every year by churches on the Friday before Valentine’s Day. Each event is unique to its location, but some cornerstone activities included across all of them are a red-carpet entrance, complete with a warm welcome from a friendly crowd and paparazzi, hair and makeup stations, limousine rides, karaoke, gifts, a catered dinner, a sensory room, a respite room for parents and caregivers, dancing, and a crowning ceremony where every guest is honored as a king or queen; the way God sees them each and every day.
“Night to Shine is my favorite night of the year! It’s my favorite because we get to celebrate so many kings and queens and share how much they are loved by us and by the God of this universe,” said Tim Tebow, founder of the Tim Tebow Foundation. “Our goal is to be able to get to every person with special needs around the world until all are celebrated. No matter what city, no matter what country, no matter where you are, we want Night to Shine to be there.”
Over the past 10 years, Night to Shine, through hundreds of churches worldwide, has provided over half a million guest experiences and over a million volunteer experiences.
To register an honored guest to attend Night to Shine hosted by Bridgeway Church in Kokomo, visit www.bridgewaykokomo.com/nighttoshine. Spots are limited to 100 guests!
For more information on the worldwide movement of Night to Shine, sponsored by the Tim Tebow Foundation, please visit: www.timtebowfoundation.org/night-to-shine.